Our thoughts about Apple’s shifted stance on third-party repairs

Apple is reportedly changing its long-standing policy regarding third-party repairs. According to a memo sent to Apple retail employees, a customer having their device’s screen repaired by a third-party source no longer voids their warranty like it once did.

The memo, obtained originally by 9to5Mac, says that retail stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers should inspect the device for things like fraud and tampering, but then proceed as normal with a standard Genius Bar screen repair. This assumes that what needs to be repaired doesn’t relate to the display replacement, of course.

There are some conditions to this new policy. If the third-party display causes the repair to fail or otherwise causes damage to the iPhone during the repair process, the customer will be required to pay the out-of-warranty cost to resolve the issue. Which isn’t surprising.

If the issue is related to the third-party display, users will be required to pay the out-of-warranty price for the repair or else be turned away by Apple completely. Lastly, if a customer wants to have the third-party display replaced with an official Apple part, the memo instructs employees to quote the out-of-warranty price. AppleCare+ will also not cover this.

At iCracked, we see this warranty update as an acknowledgment of what has been happening for years – that customers often choose third party repair services due to convenience, cost and timeliness. In the past, many customers who didn’t know that third party repairs can invalidate warranties got stuck in the middle, creating a situation where nobody wins, especially not the customer.

This shift in policy is an obvious positive for consumers – Apple device owners will no longer void their warranty on future issues if they decide to use third party repair companies like us. This gives customers more options when they need repairs, regardless of whether they’ve used a third party for previous issues. This also increases the opportunity for the 30,000 people employed by or gaining income from the third party repair industry. We are the biggest fans of Apple on the planet, and we do believe firmly that this signals their recognition of the level of quality that third party services provide. Quality parts and professional repair are core tenants of our business, which is why we stand behind our repairs with a lifetime warranty and have done so since iCracked was born in 2010.